Tuesday, November 28, 2006

This blog is about Cyber teaching...or is it? I just want to share an experience. I teach at med school where all the students have their own tablet PC. All of their notes are in Power-Point format and that is great...HOWEVER....I decided yesterday to do something different. On one side of the class I used the projector, with the Power-Point slides. On the other side, I had a white board. Instead of going through the slides and babbling about whatever they had on them, I thought it would be a good idea to slow down the rythm. I started to draw, explaining as my "work of art" was being created. I was, as I was before I made extensive use of Power-Point, telling a story. After class, students came to me to tell me how they appreciated how I took the time to explain instead of going through a bunch of slides.

Teaching is about creating a contact with the students. Teaching is about reaching other people through knowledge transfer. Anyone can look at Power-Point slides and study them. A professor who teaches only with electronic media is not doing a better job than a professor who reads transparents. Teaching is NOT about reading something students can read by themselves.

The use of cyber teaching is a GREAT idea, I am totally with it and I use it quite extensively. I think it is important to remember that a Power-Point slide is just a high-tech transparent. Teaching is an art, not just a technique!!!

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comments:

As an instructional technologist at a funding-strapped, small community college I find myself in a position where, by the nature of my job, I attempt to "sell" the virtues of using tech in the classroom...while at the same time I seem to be more quickly talking myself out of the notion. Its quite a conundrum, I may be the in the vanguard of Luddite Instructional Technologists, agreeing with you, less tech, MORE teaching...non-virtual student-to-student, student-to-instructor interactivity rules the day.

What is the appropriate use of technology...more like, affordable and maintainable technology...affordable to all students and the institution...not obsolete in 3 years.

Our body is a vessel, a beaker where biochemical reactions take place. We are matter, molecules and atoms. Our bodies obey the laws of physics and yet life is so magical. We are Biological Machines. HomoSapiens_BiologicalMachine